His jaw clenched. Frustration flared in his eyes as he stared down at her, chasing away the last of his feigned harmlessness. Of course, since nothing in her life could be easy, he was even hotter like this. A little angry. A little flustered.
Slow heat began to unfurl in her belly as she stared back—until the soft brush of boot soles on the loft landing broke the spell.
Nina spoke without looking up. “Who is he?”
“Captain Garrett Knox.” Maya’s voice was ice. “Leader of a special squad called the Silver Devils. Protectorate golden boy. The TechCorps’ favorite bully. Can I stab him?”
“You’re too far away.” Dani stepped out of the shadows of the back hallway, a pistol in her hands. “Besides, Captain Knox is leaving now.”
The man stiffened, pivoting to put his back to the wall. His gaze jumped from Nina to Maya to Dani, lingering on the pistol. Then he slowly raised his hands in a placating gesture of surrender. “Your intel is out of date. I may lead the Silver Devils, but we left the Protectorate.”
The throb behind Nina’s eyes was either irrepressible curiosity or the beginnings of a headache. “Entire squads don’t leave the Protectorate, Captain.”
“Trust me, they’re not happy about it.” He turned his head and lifted the hair at the back of his neck, where an angry red scar cut a path across his tanned skin. Med-gel had done its healing work, but the original incision must have been deep. “We cut out our trackers four days ago. Before that, my hacker used his intranet access to download this data.” He smoothed his hair back into place and gestured to the tablet. “Our retirement plan.”
Ignoring Dani’s pointed look, Nina activated the screen. The top half displayed a map, while the bottom was covered with a vault schematic. “What am I looking at, and why should it excite me?”
He took a single step closer. “Have you ever heard of the RLOC?”
The skin on her arms prickled as she rose. “Of course—the Rogue Library of Congress. When the U.S. government was faltering toward the end of the Energy Wars, they cut the Library of Congress loose as dead weight. So a handful of federal employees banded together with a group of hackers to make their own digital backups. At least, that’s the story.”
“It’s more than a story.” Now that he wasn’t choosing his words so carefully, his voice flowed like smooth whiskey. “Supposedly, there are seven bunkers in cities around the country, each one containing the entire digitized contents of the Library of Congress on multiple servers. Most of the bunkers have never been confirmed. But my man found a paper trail on one in Chattanooga.”
“It’s bullshit,” she shot back. “Every treasure hunter and his grandma has been looking for those RLOC bunkers since the Flares. It’s a folktale. They don’t exist.”
“Just look at the files.” Though his tone stayed even, stress carved lines around his eyes, and his muscles were so tight her own body ached in sympathy.
He was desperate, all right, but why? More out of pity than anything else, she skimmed the documents. The intel looked good, almost good enough to make her believe in the fairy tale.
Almost—but not quite.
So why wasn’t she showing him the door yet?
She deactivated the tablet and pressed it into his hands. His fingers trembled, a fine tremor that vibrated up her arm and made her skin tingle again. “Why is this so important? You could head south to Florida, run security ops for one of the shipping cartels. There’s plenty of work down there for a man with your training and skills.”
“He can’t.” The grudging admission came from Maya as she descended the stairs, her gaze never leaving Knox. The chill hadn’t left her dark brown eyes, but there was something else there, too—a hint of empathy. “Protectorate soldiers get their abilities from implants that adjust their biochemistry, and the implants are programmed to degrade without periodic maintenance. It’s a dead man’s switch. Keeps their weapons in line.”
“I have a lead on someone who can help us,” Knox said quietly. “But it doesn’t come cheap. I have a team depending on me, and this job is our best chance.”
He definitely wasn’t lying now. “You should have led with that,” Nina told him, her resolve weakening. “Why us? You’re the Silver Devils. Just go get it yourselves.”
“We’re a mercenary squad. We fight people.” He flashed the schematics at her again. “This? It’s beyond my pay grade. I don’t have a safe cracker, and none of us have experience with old file formats. Even if we manage to access the servers, I don’t know what data will sell or who might buy it. We’ll clear twice as much, easy, by partnering with an experienced broker. Even after we split the take.”
“Okay. Then why do we need you?”
“Because I didn’t put all the details on here. I’m not stupid.” He tucked the tablet back into his pocket and crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s a week’s drive, at least, straight through outlaw territory. Maybe you do okay in the city, but the wilds are a whole different game. You need security.”
Oh, the ego. “I can handle myself.”
“Yeah, I noticed that last night.” His lips quirked in a smile, one imbued with enough heat to draw her closer against her will. “You didn’t catch me following you, though.”
There it was. Nina waved away Maya’s protest and Dani’s outraged growl, torn between being impressed and being pissed off. She went with both. “Not many people could follow me halfway across the city without getting made. You have my congratulations.”
He inclined his head, graciously accepting the praise. “You’re good, I’m not denying that. But outlaws attack in force. You need real protection. You need me and my team.”
“We’ll see.” She brushed past him, careful not to touch him again, and crossed the living room—though she couldn’t resist a tiny smile as she pulled open the door. “Bring your crew to Clementine’s in two hours, Captain. Let’s see how well the kids play together before we decide to get hitched.”
“Fine.” He stepped over the threshold and turned back. “But if you’re on board, I want to leave tomorrow. We don’t have time to waste.”
“I haven’t agreed to anything. Yet.” She leaned her cheek against the edge of the door. “Thanks for helping me out last night, by the way. Sure was nice, not having to fight all those bastards by myself.”
“I was on my way,” he retorted. Then, unexpectedly, he smiled at her, a real smile that lit up his blue eyes and made her knees wobble. “Next time, save me a few.”
“Uh-huh. Bye, Knox.” She closed the door in his face and turned around.
Dani was so far beyond disapproval that she’d wrapped around to amusement. Her eyes gleamed as she shook her head. “This? Is a terrible idea.”
“Not denying it,” Nina admitted. “Maya, what do you know?”
Maya slumped into a chair, her fingers tapping lightly on the table in the pattern she used when she was sifting through her memories for a specific conversation. The first three fingers, followed by two taps of her pinkie, a ritual that lasted only a few seconds before she straightened, her eyes unfocused.